Squabbling

It’s been some time since I appended to this blog. Not much going on really other than the usual squabbling amongst the political and business community. The courts here do magnificent business. There is always someone trying to sue someone else or some organisation trying to sue another on spurious and doubtful evidence.

Today I see that the MDC (M), led – or perhaps no longer led – by one Arthur Mutambara who was (or perhaps still is) the Deputy Prime Minister in the Government of National (dis)Unity, is in disarray. Two weeks ago they held a ‘national congress’ and Mutambara was ousted by Welshman Ncube in what is reported as a democratic vote. Mutambara, a rocket-scientist we are told, is prone to making idiotic statements from time to time and his fall from grace is not at all surprising.

But of course there is an opposing ‘faction’! In Zimbabwe there is always at least one opposing faction and in this case the opposing faction claims that the election of Welshman Ncube was ‘unconstitutional’. In Zimbabwe, as we are frequently learning, anything is unconstitutional if a particular person with a modicum of power asnd influence disagrees with something that has happened. Therefore it can be constitutional to take another man’s land and personal property if it suits the people in power and it is unconstitutional if it does not suit those people in power – or in some cases, those people who perceive that they have power.

In 1887 J Theodore Bent, a respected archaeologist of the time came to what was about to become Southern Rhodesia and he investigated the origins and history of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins near Masvingo. During his travels he came across the Shona people who lived in the area of the ruins. One of his descriptions of the people was that ‘they are always squabbling amongst themselves all of the time’. Nothing, it seems, changes.

In the coming weeks I will try and document the current squabbles. If nothing else it should make some light hearted reading. Of course there are times when it might be far from light hearted. Some of the current squabbles include: -

1. Grace Mugabe is suing the Standard newspaper for $20 million because the Standard reported on a Wikileaks report that inferred Grace was making millions from corrupt diamond dealing
2. Various people are squabbling over the rights of ownership to SMM Holdings formerly owned by Mutumwa Mawere. He was ousted in a government sponsored coup several years ago, through his ‘specification’. Now he is back, de-specified and rattling his sabres while the government ably led by the Minister of Justice (oxymoron if ever there was one) Patrick Chinamasa who claims that Mawere never owned SMM Holdings.
3. Maize has been slashed in Harare by, some claim, members of the Harare City Council on orders from the Harare City Council. In the old Rhodesian days it was an offence to cultivate stream banks and I presume the legislation is still on the statute books. Stream bank cultivation seriously degrades the soil and destroys streams and stream banks. If maize is being slashed by ‘authorities’ I assume it is on the basis that the maize has been cultivated in stream banks (I see evidence of this all around the city). Now there is a squabble going on as to the ‘rights’ to slash the maize and to identify who is really accountable. With a proviso of course that whoever is accountable is acting against the good will of the people. Nowhere in the accounts to date has anyone mentioned ‘stream bank cultivation’, probably because no one is aware of the need to prohibit the practice for the betterment of future generations.
4. Last weekend several ‘warvets’ invaded some 20 properties around Lake Chivero, the warvets claiming their rights to ownership for ‘the people’ and senior members of ZANU PF. One couple known to me were held hostage for most of the weekend not being allowed to leave the property or for anyone else to enter it – other than fellow warvets. By Monday someone was brave enough to contact the police who, surprisingly, intervened. Now there is a squabble going on as to who was responsible. ZANU PF ‘apologised’ through the Deputy President but Minister Chombo denied any ZANU PF involvement.

Enough for now.